So there was a discussion about the next Mayville State footbal coach, why not have one about the next Minot State football coach? Coach Hughes was kind of an emergency hire when Todd Hoffner left after a few days on the job to take his old post. What does the next coach need to have? Are there any names that might apply for the job that are familiar? Would they hire Tim Belmore who was just fired from UMARY and turned down the Mayville State Job? Will it be another out of State Coach? Can Minot attract a quality coach?

Those are all very good and legitimate questions. I think recruiting and financing are the biggest problems facing any coach they hire at Minot State. As an alum, I am getting really frustrated with 1 or 2 win seasons. Beaver football hasn't been relevant since they went D2 and I think it is going to take about 5 or 6 years to rebuild that program. Hopefully they find the right guy and give him the resources he needs to get the job done.

At the moment they have over 100 people that have applied. The AD is going to meet with the top 15 to 20 at a conference in Nashville on Jan 8-12. Then to invite 2-4 for an on-campus interview. Their main pipeline is southern California. It would be nice to get someone who knows that part of the country.

I honestly have no idea how to find that out. One of the choices might be though, Byron Thomas. He was a def. cord./recruiter for Minot a couple years ago, who has a direct pipeline to California. He left to coach with his brother out east I believe. He is currently at a d3 school. He brought in alot of the kids on the team. He even got a direct endorsement from Montell Allen, who is with mbasportsrecruiting

go maji wrote:I honestly have no idea how to find that out. One of the choices might be though, Byron Thomas. He was a def. cord./recruiter for Minot a couple years ago, who has a direct pipeline to California. He left to coach with his brother out east I believe. He is currently at a d3 school. He brought in alot of the kids on the team. He even got a direct endorsement from Montell Allen, who is with mbasportsrecruiting

They have not had success with the players currently on the team, so I don't know if that is a big selling point for Thomas. Whoever they get is going to have a long road turning this program into a respectful one, let alone one that can contend for post season success. As an alum, I really, really hope they find the right guy and then give him the time and resources he needs to turn this program around. I am getting really tired of 1 - 3 win seasons.

Honestly, the program is in a little better shape than most think. That's why I'm very disappointed Hughes decided to leave. Yes, 3 wins isn't good but they seem to be moving in the right direction. An important thing to keep in mind is they've had two straight years of losing their QB for the season in the first couple games. Playing backups all year is very difficult for any program. I really believe they could have put together a 5 win season one of these last couple years if Cunha had been healthy

You've got to be excited about the new winter bubble they're installing. That is very helpful for recruiting and player development in this part of the country

go maji wrote:After NDSU and UND get their choice, there aren't many to choose from. Most of the prospects left go to Mary.

I counted up numbers on their rosters. Mary has 49 players from North Dakota. Minot has 5. But I don't know that all those players at Mary are D2 caliber. Their results sure don't show that.

On the other hand, Dickinson State has 31 North Dakota players on roster, and just finished a playoff season where they had a competitive playoff game against Montana Tech and lost by only 7, just a few years after regularly losing games against Frontier teams by 20 or more. Will that come into play, if you are a borderline NAIA/D2 player, does NAIA actually look more attractive when you look at the school's recent success?

I don't know that there are that many college level athletes in North Dakota to place in 11 different college football programs. And to make matters worse, most kids from North Dakota are not even interested in playing college football, or at least not for the small scholarship amounts that Minot, Mary, Dickinson, Mayville,Valley, Jamestown have to offer. And there are very few NDSU and UND caliber football players from this state.

The three finalists for the head coaching job at Minot state are former Missouri Western State (D-II) head coach Jerry Partridge, Southwest Minnesota State (D-II), associate head coach Mike Aldrich, and former Lindenwood University (D-II – MO) head coach Patrick Ross. The three finalists will receive on-campus interviews beginning Monday January 23rd. Partridge will interview the 23rd, Aldrich will interview the 25th and Ross will be on campus for his interview the 27th

Partridge by far had the most experience, but he is old and Minot will take a ton of energy. Mike Aldrich is young has energy and is one of the more respected assistant coaches in D2. I think he will get the offer. Ross got canned at lindenwood because he couldn't cut it in D2, and Minot State has half the resources of Lindenwood and a much smaller recruiting base.

I really hope Partridge gets it. He has the best resume out of the three. In the last 12 seasons, he had 1 losing record in the best conference in d2. With a couple conference championships in there. Aldrich applied last time, so I doubt this will be any different.

Per source, Southwest Minnesota State (D-II) assistant head coach / defensive line / linebackers coach Mike Aldrich will be the new head coach of the program. Prior to joining the staff in 2016, Aldrich previously served as the head coach at Augustana College (D-II – SD) and defensive coordinator at Wayne State College (D-II – NE).

I think this is a great choice for the program. Now lets see if they can sign more than 1 player from North Dakota to this years recruiting class.

8 out of the 24 signings were from ND. That's a really good look. Big time get to steal the Butts kid away from Mary. Gotta love that if you're a Minot person. I like that they went into Montana and Wyoming more in this class too. This is probably how a class should look. If you can sign 8 local kids a year that's about a third of your roster being in state. Then you can go out of state to find some more major talent